Adjustable baffle for a refrigerator



y 17, 1955 J- B. HORVAY ET AL ADJUSTABLE BAFFLE FOR A REFRIGERATOR Filed Oct. 28, 1953 INVENTOR.

JULIUS B. HORVAY & iBY GEORGE C.HARBISON THEIR ATTORNEY United States Patent C) ADJUSTABLE RAFFLE FOR A REFRIGERATOR Julius B. Horvay and George C. Harbison, Erie, Pa., as-

signors to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Application October 28, 1953, Serial No. 388,724

Claims. (Cl. 62-103) This invention relates to refrigerator cabinets and, more particularly, to a baflie for a refrigerator food compartment that is adjustably supported below an evaporator for disposal of defrost water.

Baflles are presently employed to divide the foodstorage compartment of a refrigerator cabinet into an upper portion, which contains the cooling means or evaporator, and a lower portion. By suitable adjustment of the baflle, it also serves to prevent circulation of air from the upper portion to the lower portion during normal operation and to permit flow of air from the upper portion to the lower portion during, summer operation when the temperature in the lower portion tends to become higher than desirable due to increased heat leakage. The main disadvantage with some of. the present baflles is that they must be completely removed from the compartment in order to be changed from one controlposition to the other position. This requires, in some cases, the removal from the shelf just below the bafileof all containers that might interfere with any portion of the baflle during the removal of the baflie. Another disadvantage of some bafiles is the reduction involume and in tall bottle storage space available when' the battle is in the lower position. In addition, it is sometimes diflicult to align the adjustable baflle with its support means when it is being moved from one position'to another.

The present invention satisfactorily solves these problems by providing a support means for the baflle that requires only a slight movement of the bathe in order to move it from one position to theother. This, of course, allows the containers on the top shelf to remain undisturbed. Furthermore, only the very rear end of the bafile changes its height so that the loss of useful volume and storage height in changing the baffle position becomes insignificant. In addition, the present invention provides an improved drain trough arrangement by making the troughan integral part of the baflle. A separate more costly drain trough, which is difiicult to remove for cleaning, has been eliminated.

The present invention is animprovement of. the bafile and support means of the copending application of Harold P. Harle for a Refrigerator Baffi'e, filed July 30, 1952, Serial Number 301,756, which is ownedby the same assignee as the present application. As the. invention claimed in the Harle application was made prior to the present invention, we do not herein claim as our invention anything shown or described in said Harle application, which application is to be" regarded as prior art with respect. to the present. invention.

The chief object of the'present invention is toprovide a refrigerator cabinet having baffle support means that will permit the baflledividingv the food storage compartment into upper and lower portions to be selectively positioned without being completely removed from the cabinet.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a bafiling arrangement for a refrigerator cabinet that. may be quickly and easily changed from a position permitting circulation of air between the upper and lower portions formed by the baffle to a position preventing circulation of air between the upper and lower portions.

A further object of this invention is to provide a baffle for a. refrigerator cabinet with an integral drain trough. Other objects of our invention will be readily perceived from the following description.

This invention relates to a refrigerator having a food storage compartment including side walls and a rear wall and an evaporator adjacent the top of the compartment. A support member is mounted on each of the side walls and a baflle is positioned on the support members below the evaporator to divide the compartment into upper and lower portions. Each of the support members has a lower support and an upper support with the lower support being at an angle to the upper support. The upper support is of a short lengthwith respect to the lower support. The upper support and one end of the lower support cooperate to permit the battle to be disposed in one position while the entire length of the lower support serves to permit the baffle to be disposed in a second position. The baffle substantially prevents the circulation of air from the upper portion containing the evaporator to the lower portion when disposed in one of the positions and permits circulation of air from the upper portion to the lower portion when disposed in the other of the positions. Additional features of the invention are the positioning of the upper support adjacent the rear wall of the compartment and the cooperation of the baffle with a gasket disposed on the rear wall of the compartment to substantially prevent circulation of air from the upper portion to the lower portion.

The attached drawing illustrates a preferred embodiment ofour invention, in which:

Fig. 1 is a view partly in section and partly in elevation of a portion of a refrigerator embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. l but showing the bafile in the second position; and

Fig. 3 is a sectional View taken along the line 33 of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawing and particularly Fig. 1, there is: shown a refrigerator cabinet 2 having an inner liner 3. Suitable insulation 4 is provided adjacent the inner liner 3 to insulate it from an outer case (not shown). Inner liner 3 forms a storage compartment 5 having an access opening that is closed by a door 6.

A baflle 7 divides the food storage compartment 5 into an upper portion 8 and a lower portion 9. An evaporator 10 is disposed in the upper portion 8 of the food storage compartment 5 to provide the desired refrigeration.

The'bafile 7 is supported by a pair of support members 14 with one disposedon each side wall of the compartment 5. Each support member 14 is a U-shaped channel member having an upper arm 15 and a lower arm 16. As clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the arms 15 and 16 diverge as they approach the rear wall of the food storage compartment 5. A third arm 17 is disposed between the upper arm 15 and the lower arm 16 adjacent the rear Wall of the food storage compartment and extends for only a short distance.

The bafflev 7 has a pendent portion 18 at the rear edge. A V-shaped trough 19 is disposed on the lowermost edge of the pendent portion 18. A horizontal. gasket 20 is secured to the rear wall of the food storage compartment 5 by suitable means such as a screw 21. An indicator member 23 is disposed below the gasket 20 on the rear wall of the food storage compartment 5. This indicator has the words Normal and Summer placed thereon with the word Normal above the word Summer. A slotted opening 24 of arrow shape is provided in the pendent portion 18 of the baffie 7 to indicate to the refrigerator owner whether the baffle is in the normal position or the summer position. Disposed in opposite corners adjacent the rear wall of the food storage compartment 5 is a pair of containers 25. These containers serve to collect and deflect any moisture dripping from the V- shaped trough 19.

Considering the operation of the present invention, the baffle 7 in one position is supported by the third arm or upper support 17 and the edge of the lower arm or lower support 16 of the support member 14 as clearly shown in Fig. 1. When the baffle is disposed in the position shown in Fig. l, the pendent portion 18 cooperates with the gasket 20 to prevent the circulation of air from the upper portion 8 of the food storage compartment 5 to the lower portion 9. When the bafile 7 is in the position shown in Fig. l, the arrow formed by the opening 24 in pendent portion 18 will be pointing toward the normal position to indicate to the refrigerator owner that circulation of air from the upper portion 8 to the lower portion 9 is substantially prevented. This baffle also serves to collect any defrost water from the evaporator 10. This water will flow downward along the baffle 7 and the pendent portion 18 on to the rear portion 26 of the V- shaped trough 19. Moisture that might condense on the underside of baffie 7 will flow on to the front portion 27 of the V-shaped trough 19. The trough is V-shaped to carry the collected moisture to the corners of the refrigerator. This moisture drains from the V-shaped trough 19 into the containers from which it is removed or drained by any suitable means. By placing the containers 25 in only the corners, there is no impediment to the flow of air from the upper portion to the lower portion when the baflle is in a position to permit such flow of air.

When it is desired to move the baffle 7 from its Normal position to its Summer position to obtain increased air circulation, it is only necessary to withdraw the bafiie a short distance and it will then drop from the third arm or upper support 17 onto the lower arm 16. This is due to the fact that the pendent portion 18 and V-shaped trough 19 are of a less width than the baffle 7. The making of the portion 18 and trough 19 of less width also permits complete removal of the battle when it is desired to clean it, for example. It will be understood that a portion of the baffle 7 may be of less width than the remainder, if desired, to reduce the distance that the battle 7 must be moved in order to change it from the position shown in Fig. l to the position shown in Fig. 2. Once the wider portion has passed the third arm 17, the cut out portion will easily permit dropping of the entire batlle onto the lower arm 16. When the baffle 7 is resting solely on the lower arm 16, it will be spaced away from the gasket Ztl (see Fig. 2) thereby permitting air to flow from the upper portion 8 of the food storage compartment to the lower portion 9. When the bafile is in this position, the arrow formed by the slotted opening 24 in pendent portion 18 will be disposed opposite the word Summer to indicate to the refrigerator owner that the baflle is positioned to permit the flow of air from the upper portion to the lower portion. It will be understood that it is only necessary to reverse the operation to move the battle 7 from the position shown in Fig. 2 to the position shown in Fig. l.

The present invention has the advantage of permitting a bafile to be easily moved from a position preventing circulation of air from the upper portion to the lower portion to the position permitting circulation of air from the upper portion to the lower portion and vice versa. The present invention also incorporates a simplified drain trough arrangement.

While the present invention has been described by reference to a particular embodiment thereof, it will be understood that modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without actually departing from the invention. We, therefore, aim in the appended claims to cover all such variations as come within the true spirit and scope of the foregoing disclosure.

We claim:

1. In a refrigerator having a food storage compartment including side walls and a rear wall, a support member mounted on each of said side walls, a bafile adapted to be positioned in said support members to divide said compartment into upper and lower portions, an evaporator in said upper portion, each of said support members having a lower support and an upper support, said lower support being at an angle to said upper support, said upper support being of a short length with respect to said lower support, said upper support and one end of said lower support cooperating to support said bafile in one position, the entire length of said lower support serving to support said bathe in a second position, a gasket mounted on said rear wall, said bafiie engaging said gasket to sub stantially prevent circulation of air from the upper portion to the lower portion when disposed in one of the positions, said bafile being spaced from said gasket to permit circulation of air from the upper portion to the lower portion when disposed in the other of the positions.

2. In a refrigerator having a food storage compartment including side walls and a rear wall, a support member mounted on each of said side walls, a bafiie adapted to be positioned in said support members to divide said compartment into upper and lower portions, an evaporator in said upper portion, each of said support members having a lower support and an upper support, said lower support being at angle to said upper support, said upper support being of a short length with respect to said lower support, said upper support being disposed adjacent said rear wall, a gasket mounted on said rear wall, said baffle being supported by said upper support and one end of said lower support to engage said gasket to substantially prevent circulation of air between said upper and lower portions, said baffie being supported by said lower support along the entire length of the lower support to space said bafilc from said gasket to permit circulation of air between the upper portion and the lower portion.

3. In a refrigerator having a food storage compartment including side walls and a rear wall, a support member mounted on each of said side walls, a bafile adapted to be positioned in said support members to divide said compartment into upper and lower portions, an evaporator in said upper portion, each of said support members being a U-shaped channel member with upper and lower side arms diverging toward the rear wall of the compartment, said channel member having a third arm disposed between said arms and extending only a short distance from the edge of said channel member adjacent said rear wall, a gasket mounted on said rear wall, said battle in one position being supported by said third arm and the front edge of said lower arm to engage said gasket to substantially prevent flow of air from the upper portion to the lower portion, said battle in a second position being supported solely by said lower arm to space said bafile from said gasket to permit flow of air from the upper portion to the lower portion.

4. In a refrigerator having a food storage compartment including side walls and a rear wall, a support member mounted on each of said side walls, a baifie adapted to be positioned in said support members to divide said compartment into upper and lower portions, an evaporator in said upper portion, each of said support members being a lJ-shaped channel member with upper and lower side arms diverging toward the rear wall of the compartment, said channel member having a third arm disposed between said upper and lower arms and extending only a short distance from the edge of said channel member adjacent said rear wall, a gasket mounted on said rear wall, said bafile in one position being supported by said third arm and front edge of said lower arm to engage said gasket to substantially prevent flow of air from the upper portion to the lower portion, said bafile in a second position being supported solely by said lower arm to space said bafiie from said gasket and permit flow of air from the upper portion to the lower portion, a pendent portion formed on the edge of said baflie adjacent said rear wall, said pendent portion being bent away from said rear wall, a V- shaped trough disposed on the lowermost edge of said pendent portion, and containers disposed at opposite sides of said compartment to collect moisture dropping from said trough.

5. In a refrigerator according to claim 4 in which the pendent portion above said trough is of less width than the baffle to permit the bafile to be moved from the third arm to the lower arm and vice versa without removing the baffle completely from the support members.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Clapper Jan. 1, 1884 Atchison Aug. 4, 1942 Shoemaker Sept. 28, 1948 Rundell June 6, 1950 Tobey Aug. 14, 1951 Millrnan July 7, 1953 

